The Lurking Druid—Murfin Verse

The catalpa nurtured from a branchlike stick.

A moment of modest mysticism for a some-time humanist and skeptic of what I used to call mystictristic mumbo-jumbo.   The prompt for this effort was The Wisdom of Trees a worship service by Carol Alfus at Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry, Illinois.

Kathy's tree--a Colorado blue spruce in 2022.  Add a couple of feet this year.

The Lurking Druid

July 1, 2024

 

Perhaps a lurking Druid dwells within

            not  really worshiping trees

            to invoke gods or wraiths,

            but drawing on them

            for some kind of

            connection to the Greater

                        on my daily—weather perming—

                        perambulation of my modest estate.

 

 It’s not exactly Nature worship

            these familiar trees

            were planted here by human hands—

            stewards of the plot before me,

            not remnant primeval woodland—

                        the spreading catalpa from

                        far off India,

                        the blue spruce 

                         of Western mountains,

or the lilacs

bred to a fare-thee-well

for color and profusion

of blooms.

 

No sacrifices under cloud scudding moon

            just a deep breath or two

            and a communion of being

            during my passing turn

            as their neighbor.

 

—Patrick Murfin